Unconditional
by Nuyaviel
Summary: As they flee Troy, Briseis hates Paris for killing her lover and calls him a coward. In turn, Paris asks her how she could love a killer such as Achilles.


DISLAIMER: No, I don't own the movie Troy or the book written by Homer. And none of the lyrics here are mine, either. Some of the lyrics have been slightly edited to fit the context of Troy. Obviously, Homer didn't write anything about dark cold hotel rooms... and the lyrics don't really have to do with the flow of the story, they're just random memories of the time when Achilles and Briseis were together.

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**UNCONDITIONAL**

**- - - - -**

_You used to captivate me __by your resonating light_

_now I'm bound by the life you left behind_

_your face, it haunts my once-pleasant dreams_

_your voice, it chased away all the sanity in me..._

--"My Immortal" by Evanescence--

(A soundtrack to Briseis' mourning of her lover, the great Achilles)

**- - - - -**

Briseis stumbled along beside Paris, tears blinding her, her last vision of Achilles still burning in her mind. Achilles, wounded by numerous arrows, by all rights dead. And yet, he was on his knees, his eyes fixed on hers, determined that Briseis would remember his strength, his love. Not his death.

_How fiercely he loved me_. Briseis was weeping. She was already thinking of her lover, the great Achilles, in the past tense. _Achilles._ He loved her so much that he had let her leave him, then he had come to save her.

**- - - - -**

_I guess I'm trying to be nonchalant about it_

_I'm going to extremes to prove I'm fine without you_

_But in reality I'm slowly losing my mind_

_Underneath the guise of smile, gradually I'm dying inside_

_Friends ask me how I feel, __and I lie convincingly_

_'Cause I don't want to reveal the fact that I'm suffering_

_So I wear my disguise, 'till I'm alone at night_

_And then I break down and cry, cry_

--"Breakdown" by Mariah Carey--

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_Before I let you go, I want to say_

_I love you_

_I hope that you're listening 'cause it's true_

_you'll be forever in my heart..._

_so before I let you go, I want to say_

_I love you_

_--_"Before I Let You Go" by Freestyle--

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_And when the night wind starts to sing a lonesome lullaby_

_It helps to think we're sleeping underneath the same big sky_

_Somewhere out there_

_If love can see us throug_

_Then we'll be together, somewhere out there_

_out where dreams come true..._

--"Somewhere Out There" by James Ingram--

(theme songs for Achilles and Briseis, the night after Hector was killed, after Achilles allowed Briseis to leave him and she returned to Troy)

**- - - - -**

_His surprisingly gentle hands on my arms. His warm lips on mine._ An enemy soldier sighted Paris and Briseis running away from the warfare. Before he could open his mouth to bellow, Paris' arrow whistled through the air and sliced into his heart. Briseis, sobbing, wasn't even aware of the disruption.

_Bronzed muscles gleaming. He used them to kill, to hurt, but I cannot hate him._ She wanted to forgive him for killing Hector, for killing everyone he had killed, but there was nothing to forgive. Achilles was what he was, and he was not a man who would let his treasured cousin's killer walk for much longer in the world of the living. He was not a man who wouldn't join a war, who wouldn't fight in a war. Briseis couldn't blame Achilles for being who he was. She loved him, lethal abilities, passionate nature, and all.

**- - - - -**

_This is our moment_

_This is my perfect moment with you_

_I wish I could freeze this moment in time_

_The way that I feel for you inside_

_This is my perfect moment with you._

--"Perfect Moment" by Martine McCutcheon

(Briseis' thoughts on the night that she and Achilles first made love)

**- - - - -**

_He wanted the world to remember his na__me._ The world would remember Achilles, and so would she. But she would cherish him in her memories not as a great warrior of legendary skills, but as a man who loved her and protected her. Briseis' mind was in turmoil, her sight blurred by tears, and she didn't see Paris stabbing an arrow into a Grecian warrior before he pulled it out and fitted it into his bow, sending the bloody arrow flying into the chest of another enemy rushing towards them.

Then they were at the secret passage, but Briseis barely noticed. Her thoughts were frantic. She wanted to die. Could she die, and go with him to wherever he was going? She wanted him. She wanted to be with him. _Achilles. My love. I love you._

But what if there was nothing after death? A cold chill struck Briseis, and she stopped dead in her tracks. Paris grabbed her by the shoulders. "What is wrong?"

She didn't answer, just started moving again. She could feel something frozen sweeping over her. What if there was nothing after death? What if there was only darkness, nothingness, and she would never be with Achilles again? Who said there was life after death anyway? _What if there was nothing after death?_

**- - - - -**

_Someday we'll know if love can move a mountain_

_someday we'll know why the sky is blue_

_someday we'll know why I wasn't meant for you..._

--"Someday We'll Know" by New Radicals--

(why did Achilles have to die? Why were he and Briseis denied a life together? Their thoughts on that...)

**- - - - -**

Panic. Pure, icy panic swept through her, and she did the first thing that came to mind. She grabbed Paris, who was striding swiftly in front of her, and whirled him around. Then she slapped him, as hard as she could. The sound reverberated. Paris was stunned.

Then he raised his hand to hit her back. A muscle clenched in his jaw, and Briseis stared at him defiantly, almost welcoming his violence. "Go on!" she shouted at him. "Do it." _Achilles._ Her heart became colder, if that was possible, as images of the first time they had made love came to her, herself holding a knife to his neck, his sensuous lips ordering her to do it. To kill him.

Briseis silently added, _give me a reason to hate you, Paris._ She wanted so much to hate him for killing Achilles, but at the same time, the memory of Hector was strong. Hector's gentle embrace, his loving words, his honor and strength. Hector was the reason Paris had killed Achilles. She couldn't hate Achilles for killing the man who killed his cousin, and she couldn't hate Paris for killing the man who killed his brother.

If Paris hit her, she would fly at him, and scratch him, and punch him, and maybe he would hurl her against the wall. Maybe her head would crack on the stone wall, and she would die, and she would be with –

_Achilles._ Tears sprang into her eyes, and her face crumpled. Paris inhaled and let his hand drop. He pulled her into his arms. "Briseis, I'm sorry."

_Damn you. Don't apologize. Who will I blame for Achilles' death?_

**- - - - -**

_Goodbye to you_

_Goodbye to everything I thought I knew_

_You were the one I loved_

_the one thing that I tried to hold on to..._

_...and it seems that I can't live a day without you..._

--"Goodbye To You" by Michelle Branch--

(a song from Briseis to Achilles, as he held her in his arms before he died)

**- - - - -**

Briseis pushed her way out of Paris' arms. Without thinking, she started to turn back, walk back to Troy. Achilles was there, maybe he was alive, maybe she was just having a nightmare.

She had barely taken two steps when Paris moved towards her, and his fingers clamped around her arm in a steely grip. He gritted out, "Do you return to Troy? It is a dead city. Or do you return to Achilles? He, too, is dead."

Briseis started to slap him again. He caught her by the wrist and glared down at her. "Do not slap me for speaking the truth. The great Achilles is dead."

Briseis eyes were cold, as cold as the silver necklace Achilles had given her, draped around her neck, hidden in the folds of her garment. "Because you killed him, you coward!"

Paris stiffened. Then he let go of her wrist, wounded. Quietly he said, "I may be a coward, but now I am on my way to a new life with the woman I love. Because of his courage, the man you love lies dead."

**- - - - -**

_Mothers weep, children sleep_

_So much violence ends in silence_

_It's a shame there's no one to blame_

_for all the pain that life brings..._

_--_"Stand" by Jewel--

(a melody for all in Troy, especially Briseis, who flees her burning homeland, the land where her beloved Achilles died)

**- - - - -**

Briseis shrieked at Paris, "He died because he saved my life!"

"I saved Helen's life!" he shouted, with sudden, surprising anger. "If she had stayed in Sparta she would have killed herself. She would have walked into the sea and let herself drown."

Briseis was thoroughly chilled by now, and she cried. "You shot him, thinking you were saving me. And I could have run to him. I could have protected him with my body. Instead I stood there and let you use your arrows on him. I watched you kill Achilles, and I did nothing."

"But so many men are dead," Paris went on. "I am selfish, am I not? I put my own happiness, my own love, ahead of Troy. And now Troy burns."

"Achilles was all to me. He said to me that I gave him peace. He gave me love. He was my sun, my moon, the man I gave up everything for. He only hurt me once, and that was when his beloved cousin died. He saved me countless times, loved me countless times. I was his captive, his slave, and yet he treated me as his wife."

"A thousand ships of war were launched because of the woman I love."

"My beloved killed my cousin Hector, and so many others."

**- - - - -**

_And I know you're shining down on me from heaven_

_like so many friends we lost along the way_

_and I know eventually we'll be together_

_one sweet day..._

--"One Sweet Day" by Mariah Carey and Boys II Men--

(Briseis, to her dead Achilles)

**- - - - -**

Both of them fell silent, standing in the flickering torchlight of the empty stone passageway, each immersed in their own thoughts. After a while Briseis looked up at Paris and said softly, "Is there an afterlife?"

Paris looked at her. "I do not know. But if there is, surely you and Achilles will be reunited.'

There was life after death. There had to be. And there Achilles would be waiting for her. Slowly, but surely, heat was flooding back into her, melting the glacier around her heart.

"He killed so many people. What if they are all waiting for him in the afterlife, waiting to get their revenge?" But warmth was seeping back into Briseis. The coldness had come from the thought that there was nothing after death, that she had seen her beloved Achilles for the last time kneeling, his eyes locked on hers.

"You love him despite that." Paris gazed at her with a mixture of confusion and admiration. "How can you love the great Achilles? Is he not a brute in bed? I know how much you adored Hector. How can you love his murderer?"

**- - - - -**

_Would you know my name if I saw you in heaven?_

_I must be strong and carry on, 'cause I know_

_I don't belong here in heaven._

--"Tears in Heaven" by Eric Clapton--

(what Achilles might be thinking in the afterlife, because the good Briseis might be going to a heaven where he, Achilles, who has killed so many, shall not be allowed)

**- - - - -**

Briseis spoke, her tone firm. "I wish Achilles had not fought with Hector at all. But he did, and it would have been harder on me to see Achilles die."

Paris blinked. "You say that you would rather Hector die than Achilles?"

"Yes." Her tone left no room for argument.

Paris said nothing for a moment. He reached out and gave Briseis an unexpected hug. "I love my brother, but I cannot fault you, cousin. I would rather plunge Troy into a war with the Greeks than see Helen unhappy and ready to take her own life."

Briseis wrapped her arms around Paris and held on tight. She started to cry again. "I want Achilles. So much!"

**- - - - -**

_I'm there for you, __no matter what_

_I'm there for you, __never giving up_

_you know it's true_

_I'm there for you._

--"For You" by The Calling--

(a tune for all the times Achilles rescued Briseis from harm)

**- - - - -**

Paris held her, and guided her down the passageway, to where his beloved Helen was waiting.

The children of Troy loved fiercely, and unconditionally.

A few steps later, Briseis mumbled something, redness flooding into her cheek.

"What?" Paris tilted his head towards hers.

"I said, Achilles was not a brute in bed. He was incredible."

- - - - -

_In the arms of an angel __fly away from here_

_from this dark cold war_

_and the endlessness that you fear_

_you are pulled from the wreckage __of your silent reverie_

_you're in the arms on the angel_

_may you find some comfort here._

_--_"Angel" by Sarah McLachlan--

(for Achilles, as he loved Briseis during the war against Troy)

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A/N: I just watched Troy, and I had to write this… this is something I churned out two hours after I saw the credits flash on the movie screen. Hope you like it… please review...


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